February

The first flight on 5 February had five deportees from the United States.

At a press conference this week, Director General of Health, Leausa Dr. Take Naseri said the deportees completed their 21 days mandatory quarantine period on 26 February.

Savali Newspaper reports they had their Covid-19 tests on the day of their arrival and on their last day of quarantine period.

Most of the deportees received their Covid-19 vaccinations in the United States prior to travelling to Samoa.

Another flight on 13 February brought 60 people from Fiji.

The focus of the Special Leaders Retreat will be the COVID-19 pandemic and the appointment of the next Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said regulators were now expected to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by the end of January.

He announced the plans on Thursday as the cities of Sydney and Melbourne battled to control new clusters.

By March, four million Australians could be vaccinated, he said.

"We are now in a position where believe we will be able to commence vaccinations in mid-to-late February," Mr Morrison said.

Following regulatory approval, the first of the country's order of 10 million Pfizer vaccine doses should be issued in a matter of weeks.

The unprecedented leap led scientists, usually wary of highlighting a single month’s temperature, to label the new record a “shocker” and warn of a “climate emergency”.